Macbeth
Act III Literary Terms and Rhetorical Devices
Casey Koch, Luci Mason, Kyle Moran, Renee Tornea
1. ALLITERATION:
“Tis safer to be that which we destroy/Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”
III.ii.6-7 2. ALLUSION: “Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.”
III.i.57 3. ALLUSION: “Of the most pious Edward…takes from his high respect.”
III.vi.27-29 4. ANAPHORA: “This is the very painting of your fear/This is the air-drawn dagger…”
III.iv.61-62 5. ANAPHORA: “Your vessels and your spells provide/Your charms and everything beside.”
III.v.18-19
8. ASYNDETON:
“Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle/The housekeeper, the hunter…”
III.i.96-97
9. ASSONANCE:
“Or show the glory of our art?”
III.v.9
10. ASSONANCE:
“Makes wings to the rooky wood/Good things of day.”
III.51-52
11. CHIASMUS
"For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered/Put rancors in the vessel of my peace/Only for them."
III.i.66-68
12. COLLOQUIAL:
"What's done is done."
III.ii.12
13. CONSONANCE:
“Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave.”
III.i.90
14. DIACOPE:
"Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly fly!"
III.iii.17
15. ELLIPSIS:
"Thither Macduff/Is gone to pray the holy King..."
III.vi.29-30
16. EPANALEPSIS:
“It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood.”
III.iv.122
17. FORESHADOWING:
"Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown/And put a barren scepter in my gripe/Thence to be wretched with an unlineal hand/No son of mine succeeding."
III.i.60-63
18. FORESHADOWING:
"It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood/Stones have been known to move and trees to speak."
III.iv.122-123
19. HYPERBOLE:
“With twenty trenched gashes in his head/The least a death to nature.”
III.iv.27-28 20. IMAGERY: “Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.”
III.ii.37
21. IMAGERY:
“My little spirit, see/Sits in a foggy cloud.”
III.v.34-35
22. IRONY:
“Duncan is in his grave/After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst; nor can steel, nor poison…nothing touch him further.”
III.ii.23-25
23. JUXTAPOSITION:
“Better be with the dead/Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace/Than on the torture of the mind to like/In restless ecstasy.”
III.ii.19-22
24. JUXTAPOSITION:
“The mistress of your charms/The close contriver of all harms.” III.v.6-7 25. METAPHOR: “There the grown serpent lies; the work that’s fled/Hath nature that in time will venom breed/No teeth for the present.”
III.iv.29-31
26. METONYMY:
“Thither Macduff/Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid/To wake Northumberland…”
III.vi.29-31
27. MOTIF:
"If charnel houses and our graves must send/Those that we bury back, our monuments/Shall be the maws of kites."
III.iv.71-73
"Augurs and understood relations have/By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth/The secrest'st man of blood."
III.iv.124-126
28. PARALELLISM:
"To be thus is nothing/But to be safely thus...
III.i.48-49
29. PARALELLISM:
"Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace..."
III.ii.20
30. PARENTHESIS:
[aside] "Then comes my fit again; I had else been perfect..."
III.iv.21 31. PARENTHESIS:
[aside] “Are you a man?”
III.iv.58
32. PERIODIC SENTENCE: “The son of Duncan/From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth/Lives in the English court…”
III.vi.24-26
33. PERIODIC SENTENCE:
“Fleance, his son, that keeps him company/Whose absence is no less material to me than is his father’s/Must embrace the fate of that dark hour.”
III.i.135-138 34. PERSONIFICATION:
“Come seeling night/Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day.”
III.ii.46-47
35. PERSONIFICATION: “Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.”
III.iv.123
36. RHETORICAL QUESTION:
“Why by the verities on thee made good/May they not be my oracles as well/And set me up in hope?”
III.i.8-10
37. RHETORICAL QUESTION:
“Have I not reason, beldams as you are, saucy and overbold?”
III.v.2-3
38. SARCASM:
“Whom, you may say, if’t please you, Fleance killed/For Fleance fled; men must not walk too late.”
III.vi.6-7
39. SIMILIE: “Whole as the marble, founded as the rock/As broad and general as the casing air.”
III.iv.22-23
40. SIMILIE:
“Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear/The armed rhinoceros…”
III.iv.100-101
Act III Literary Terms and Rhetorical Devices
Casey Koch, Luci Mason, Kyle Moran, Renee Tornea
1. ALLITERATION:
“Tis safer to be that which we destroy/Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”
III.ii.6-7
2. ALLUSION:
“Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.”
III.i.57
3. ALLUSION:
“Of the most pious Edward…takes from his high respect.”
III.vi.27-29
4. ANAPHORA:
“This is the very painting of your fear/This is the air-drawn dagger…”
III.iv.61-62
5. ANAPHORA:
“Your vessels and your spells provide/Your charms and everything beside.”
III.v.18-19
6. APOSTROPHE:
“O slave!”
III.iii.17
7. ASYNDETON:
“As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs/Shoughs, water-rugs…are clept.”
III.i.93-94
8. ASYNDETON:
“Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle/The housekeeper, the hunter…”
III.i.96-97
9. ASSONANCE:
“Or show the glory of our art?”
III.v.9
10. ASSONANCE:
“Makes wings to the rooky wood/Good things of day.”
III.51-52
11. CHIASMUS
"For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered/Put rancors in the vessel of my peace/Only for them."
III.i.66-68
12. COLLOQUIAL:
"What's done is done."
III.ii.12
13. CONSONANCE:
“Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave.”
III.i.90
14. DIACOPE:
"Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly fly!"
III.iii.17
15. ELLIPSIS:
"Thither Macduff/Is gone to pray the holy King..."
III.vi.29-30
16. EPANALEPSIS:
“It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood.”
III.iv.122
17. FORESHADOWING:
"Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown/And put a barren scepter in my gripe/Thence to be wretched with an unlineal hand/No son of mine succeeding."
III.i.60-63
18. FORESHADOWING:
"It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood/Stones have been known to move and trees to speak."
III.iv.122-123
19. HYPERBOLE:
“With twenty trenched gashes in his head/The least a death to nature.”
III.iv.27-28
20. IMAGERY:
“Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.”
III.ii.37
21. IMAGERY:
“My little spirit, see/Sits in a foggy cloud.”
III.v.34-35
22. IRONY:
“Duncan is in his grave/After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst; nor can steel, nor poison…nothing touch him further.”
III.ii.23-25
23. JUXTAPOSITION:
“Better be with the dead/Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace/Than on the torture of the mind to like/In restless ecstasy.”
III.ii.19-22
24. JUXTAPOSITION:
“The mistress of your charms/The close contriver of all harms.”
III.v.6-7
25. METAPHOR:
“There the grown serpent lies; the work that’s fled/Hath nature that in time will venom breed/No teeth for the present.”
III.iv.29-31
26. METONYMY:
“Thither Macduff/Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid/To wake Northumberland…”
III.vi.29-31
27. MOTIF:
"If charnel houses and our graves must send/Those that we bury back, our monuments/Shall be the maws of kites."
III.iv.71-73
"Augurs and understood relations have/By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth/The secrest'st man of blood."
III.iv.124-126
28. PARALELLISM:
"To be thus is nothing/But to be safely thus...
III.i.48-49
29. PARALELLISM:
"Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace..."
III.ii.20
30. PARENTHESIS:
[aside] "Then comes my fit again; I had else been perfect..."
III.iv.21
31. PARENTHESIS:
[aside] “Are you a man?”
III.iv.58
32. PERIODIC SENTENCE:
“The son of Duncan/From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth/Lives in the English court…”
III.vi.24-26
33. PERIODIC SENTENCE:
“Fleance, his son, that keeps him company/Whose absence is no less material to me than is his father’s/Must embrace the fate of that dark hour.”
III.i.135-138
34. PERSONIFICATION:
“Come seeling night/Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day.”
III.ii.46-47
35. PERSONIFICATION:
“Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.”
III.iv.123
36. RHETORICAL QUESTION:
“Why by the verities on thee made good/May they not be my oracles as well/And set me up in hope?”
III.i.8-10
37. RHETORICAL QUESTION:
“Have I not reason, beldams as you are, saucy and overbold?”
III.v.2-3
38. SARCASM:
“Whom, you may say, if’t please you, Fleance killed/For Fleance fled; men must not walk too late.”
III.vi.6-7
39. SIMILIE:
“Whole as the marble, founded as the rock/As broad and general as the casing air.”
III.iv.22-23
40. SIMILIE:
“Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear/The armed rhinoceros…”
III.iv.100-101